Republicans Introduce Their Biggest Attack on Voting Rights Yet

Republicans have proposed an “election reform” bill that would effectively impose severe restrictions on voting across the country.

The “Make Elections Great Again Act” would allow require photo ID, requiring mail-in ballots to be received by Election Day, requiring voters to agree to vote by mail, banning ranked-choice voting for federal elections, among other restrictions.

States like Oregon have had universal mail-in ballots for years, and many states allow mail-in ballots to be counted up to a certain date if they are postmarked by Election Day. Ranked-choice voting is used for some statewide elections in Maine and Alaska, as well as local elections nationwide.

Rep. Bryan Steil, chairman of the House Administration Committee, introduced the bill, saying it will “improve voter confidence, strengthen election integrity, and make it easy to vote, but hard to cheat.”

What he left out of his statement is perhaps one of the most troubling elements of the bill. If passed, each state would also be required to create a single digital voter database that would serve as the “official voter registration list for the conduct of all elections for federal office in the state.”

States should also provide documented proof of U.S. citizenship to anyone registered to vote federally and recheck the eligibility of such voters “to the extent necessary on an ongoing basis, but in no event less than once every 30 days.”

Under the bill, the U.S. attorney general could sue states to force them to comply with the new restrictions, and citizens would have the power to sue election officials who register a voter without proof of citizenship.

The bill will have a very difficult time passing the House and Senate before the midterm elections, and if it ends up being signed by President Trump, it will most likely face a wave of lawsuits from states across the country. It’s essentially meant to quell Republican conspiracy theories about voter fraud and Trump’s claim that every election he loses is fraudulent.